Elena Lvina

Measure invariance of the Political Skill Inventory (PSI) across five cultures

This research expands the study of political skill, a construct developed in North America, to other cultures. We examine the psychometric properties of the Political Skill Inventory (PSI) and test the measurement equivalence of the scale in a non-American context. Respondents were 1511 employees from China, Germany, Russia, Turkey, and the United States. The cross-cultural generalizability of the construct is established through consistent evidence of multi-group invariance in an increasingly stringent series of analyses of mean and covariance structures. Overall, the study provides systematic evidence that political skill can be treated as a stable construct among diverse cultural groups. Furthermore, our findings demonstrate that translated PSI measures operationalize the construct similarly. With some exceptions, the item loadings and intercepts are invariant for the US and non-US responses, suggesting partial measurement equivalence. After verifying the accuracy of item translation, we conclude that any differences can be explained by variation in the cultural value of uncertainly avoidance and cultural differences on a low-to-high context continuum. Detected dissimilarities are addressed, and some suggestions regarding the correct use across borders of the instrument by managers and researchers are provided.

Why do Boards Differ? Because Owners Do: Assessing Ownership Impact on Board Composition

Manuscript Type. Empirical. Research Question/Issue. Does the ownership structure of a firm, specifically the aggregation of the different ownership types within each firm, relate with the composition of its board?. Research Findings/Insights. Using archival data from a sample comprising 1,487 U.S. firms, we find that the composition of the individual profiles of directors on corporate boards (i.e., independent, affiliated, or insider) match a firms aggregated ownership configuration (institutional, corporate parent, family‐entrepreneur control) even after parsing out the impact of CEO characteristics, firm size, and performance. Further analyses elaborate on the specific relationship between each director profile and ownership types present within the firm. Theoretical/Academic Implications. This study builds upon three conceptual perspectives: agency, resource dependency, and behavioral. We argue that each type of ownership has differing imperatives and may prefer different types of directors to fulfill their governance needs. The paper illustrates that the relationship between corporate governance, specifically board composition, and ownership is a comprehensive phenomenon that is best understood through multiple theoretical lenses. Practitioner/Policy Implications. This study shows that ownership and board composition are not substitutable governance mechanisms as commonly understood, but might be complementary mechanisms. A finding that governance mechanisms are complementary implies that regulatory or institutional pressures to modify board composition with the addition of directors with similar profiles may affect the governance in unforeseen ways.

Toward a Psychology of Societal Change and Stability: The Case of Human Rights and Duties

A distinction is made between two types of psychology concerned with: performance capacity, the abilities of individuals tested in isolation; and performance style, the way things get done and the meanings ascribed to phenomena. Causal explanations are appropriate for performance capacity, and normative ones for performance style. Traditional psychology has focused predominantly on performance capacity and causation. Societal change and stability, it is argued, involves meaning systems and are best understood in terms of performance style and normative models. Stability is achieved through “carriers,” flexible vehicles that help to sustain meaning systems. As our illustrative example, we consider the topic of human rights and duties. Carriers in some situations widen a gap between formal law and actual behavior. This gap, we argue, is in part due to the faster maximum speed of change in legal and other macrolevel spheres, relative to the psychological level.

From Doing Good to Looking Even Better: The Dynamics of CSR and Reputation

Grounded in stakeholder theory and a resource-based view of the firm, this longitudinal research demonstrates the evolution of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and firm reputation over time. Drawing on a 5-year sample of 285 major U.S. firms obtained from the KLD database and Fortune’s Most Admired Companies, we find that the proposed dynamic relationship predicts evolving stakeholder expectations to incite organizations to improve their social performance to earn reputational benefits. Contrary to the often labeled stickiness of reputation, we find a “Red Queen” effect that supports reputation as a dynamic construct where the change in CSR does predict a change in corporate reputation. Similarly, we find that the change in reputation over time varies by industry, being most pronounced for manufacturing. From a practical perspective, this relationship across time may incite managers to create sustainable competitive advantage by continuously investing in doing good to reap the benefits of looking good and looking even better with time.

Success factors of Aboriginal women entrepreneurs: a study of Mohawk community in Canada

Research in indigenous entrepreneurship as well as women and entrepreneurship is growing. This paper presents 11 case studies on women Aboriginal entrepreneurs in Quebec, Canada. For Aboriginal peoples, small business and entrepreneurship is intimately linked to community and cultural survival. Within these communities, women assume major roles and are active participants and leaders in politics and in business. This research examines several models of entrepreneurship – traits, behavioural and environmental. The Aboriginal women entrepreneurs interviewed show a profound need for conformity and a strong tendency towards collectivism. The business strategies of this group are mostly focused on serving local community needs. This inwardly focused approach may be due to their collectivist orientation or to the availability of limited information on external markets for products and services. This paper concludes with some suggestions on policy directions to encourage Aboriginal entrepreneurship as a means of economic development, self-determination and community sustainability.

Political Skill, Trust, and Efficacy in Teams

Political skill, frequently understood as a social skill at work, is argued to be a valuable resource not only at the individual level but also for the teams. Using hierarchical linear modeling and data from 525 students, organized into 115 teams, we demonstrate that political skill at the individual level shapes individual perceptions of team efficacy and trust in team. Both the level and the composition of political skill within the team are found to be critical for these team emergent states, albeit they play out differently for team members who are high versus low in political skill.

When Trust in the Leader Matters: The Moderated-Mediation Model of Team Performance and Trust

This study contributes to the sport and team literature by exploring the conditions in which trust in a leader translates into trust in a team and subsequent team performance. Findings from 709 athletes on 74 basketball teams demonstrated that trust in the coach represents a critical antecedent of team trust, especially when the teams past performance has been poor. We also found a combined effect of the level and consensus in trust on team performance. Practical implications suggest that a coach needs to ensure that every player, rather than just some or even the majority of individual team members, trusts him or her and the team.

Matchmaking and the multinational enterprise: how individual motivation and international strategy interact to affect expatriate adjustment

In this theoretical work, we propose a fresh look at expatriate adjustment, in which the focus is on the link between motivational antecedents and expatriate adjustment, moderated by international strategy orientation. Key concepts from human resource management and international strategic management are linked in a model that crosses levels of analysis and develops a typology of expatriate adjustment. The primary contribution of this paper is extending our understanding of human resource management in the complex environments of emerging and transitional economies, by showing when and how expatriates are likely to adjust more effectively.